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GENERAL practice managers, corporate general practices and AMA advisers were sweating over the summer holidays -- not at the beach, but over the 1252 pages of the new federal industrial relations laws and explanatory notes rammed through the Senate late last year.
In a nutshell, the laws will allow individual contracts or Australian workplace agreements (AWAs) between employers and employees that can override many state-based union awards, set minimum wages through the new Fair Pay Commission and reshuffle regulatory powers between state and federal industrial relations (IR) bureaucracies.
Doctors have traditionally negotiated diverse arrangements, whether as employers, employees or contractors, so may be minimally affected. But the legislation's scope is unclear and many people Australian Doctor spoke to were cautious when asked what the changes may mean for general practices, especially for support staff.
AMA IR spokesman Mr Warwick Hough says that, like many small businesses, medical practices prefer to deal directly with staff.
"Doctors working in GP practices are normally engaged as independent contractors. They are sole practitioners, entities in their own right, rather than on an employment basis," Mr Hough says.
Many support staff are covered by awards, which will be rationalised and simplified under the new laws, although practices can still expect to have a lot of individual negotiation to meet personal circumstances, Mr Hough says.
"The penetration of formal AWAs is pretty low so far, although the new legislation may lead to many informal arrangements being formalised. There will certainly be a lot more scope for practices to negotiate directly with their employees."
The increase in the number of larger practices has already made flexible agreements the rule rather than the exception. The proportion of GPs working in practices of four or more doctors rose from 21% to 51% in the five years to 2002, according to the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee's latest GP workforce review.
The trend for younger, especially female, doctors to prefer a better work/family balance, and their reluctance to buy into practices, has led to many larger practices hiring managers to oversee the increasingly complex GP workplace.
Australian Association of Practice Managers president Ms Jan Chaffey says in her experience most doctors are on contracts and most support staff until now have been covered by...